It seems that every generation has its struggles with music. For example, when the Beatles came to America in 1964 they were preached against and scorned at every turn. Yet today they would be seen as “mild” compared to Rihanna and Justin Bieber for sure. The Beatles’ every word was attacked and even their hair styled was banned in many colleges and schools because it was the “Beatle’s bowl cut” and it was a sign of rebellion. Now mind you, there were times that these four from Britain did seem to run counter to everything Christian, such as when John Lennon said, “they were more popular than Jesus Christ,” but did they really destroy American Christians with their music?
When I was a teenager in the mid to late 1980s I can remember conferences being held by IFB preachers about music and its affects on our generation. Good men such as Frank Garlock, father-in-law to Patch the Pirate’s Ron Hamilton, held these kind of conferences. I remember as a young teen reading book “The Big Beat” written in 1971 by Dr. Garlock who went across America speaking about the dangers of the music and lyrics by using small clip examples of the music and lyrics in churches. Dr. Garlock was criticized by some for bringing rock into churches and even later said that he had been greatly affected by the usage of those clips and so stopped using them in his meetings. He was right on target with his assessment and his messages were on sound doctrinally but that made him very unpopular in some circles too. But should preachers still stand for or against certain styles of music or should any style of popular music be used to preach the Gospel?
As some of you may recall, there were many record burning sessions in the 1960s through the 1990s at churches of all stripes and doctrinal stances because of the genuine concern for godliness and fear of rock music’s effects on the youth of our nation. Some told us that the records had been blessed by satanic priests and that if you played them backwards, secret messages would play. Stories circulated that some records would scream when they were burned in the fires as the demons were released. Once again, there was a genuine concern by some and yet sensationalism by others. But once again, I ask, should these kind of events have happened in the first place, or were these preachers being almost fascist in these record burnings? Have some Christian leaders just been over-reacting to the music of the current age?
Here we are in 2017 and clearly times have changed when it comes to music. As an example, the Super Bowl is most watched annual event in the entire world with over 120 million watching world wide. The very first Super Bowl halftime show was the University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band doing a list of songs entitled “The Liberty Bell,” but, this year (2017) it was Lady Gaga “singing” about sexual equality for LGBT people at halftime. By the way, this is the same 2017 Super Bowl that played in many churches as part of their Super Sunday services. According to “Christianity Today” magazine, more than 2 of every 5 churches that have evening services adjusted their services for the Super Bowl, with 24% actually showing the game IN THEIR CHURCH as part of their evening activities. According the article, the larger the church, the more likely they were to change their activities on Super Bowl Sunday for the sake of the game. To clarify that point, according to the article churches of less than 100 in their evening service were more than 90% likely to keep their services unchanged. Can you honestly imagine the first church at Jerusalem doing that? I know it seems that I digressed from the subject at hand about music, but there is a truth that we will hopefully in time see connecting the two things.
So the main questions really are have our public worship music standards really changed that much and does it really spiritually matter what we listen to anyway? Let’s take the issues one at a time. First, what about church/public worship music?
Today in churches across the world, let’s be honest here, the style of music that once only played in dance halls and rock concerts seemingly screams out of the sound systems of worship centers of churches that claim doctrinal truth to be their mantra. The words seem very different but it appears that the music is almost the same sound and even an almost identical atmosphere. Now mind you, I am not judging the hearts of these people as that is God’s task (1 Samuel 16:7) and I am sure that many of these worship leaders truly love the Lord deeply, so please don’t misunderstand the purpose for this article series. I simply want to give a single man’s opinion on music in the Christian home.
Let me start by saying I have tried to honestly “research” the current trends and examine them from a Bible perspective. As an example, I recently watched a video on a Christian video website from a group that called themselves a Christian Grunge group. They had smoke, pyrotechnic displays, and even laser lights. They literally screamed their lyrics to their song “Repent” and they truly seemed very “into” the message of the song. But within one of the links below their video, they had an article entitled “How to Scream Your Message Without Damaging Your Voice.” I clicked the link and read the article. It was written by the lead singer and founder of the group and referenced numerous secular (clearly ungodly) heavy metal and grunge groups as their inspiration style. I found that very curious but slightly unsettling at the same time. I then returned to their video page and watched another video, and then it dawned on me - they were doing their grunge Christian music in the worship service of a church building. It was actually part of their church’s Sunday morning service - lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, and the screaming lyrics too. I asked myself, was this what worship music should be?
God’s Word should always been our foundation of everything we do, but especially in the area of our public/church worship. You see, as a church does publicly, so the members are encouraged to follow privately in their homes. If a church prays and reads Scripture, then the members are being encouraged to follow that example in their homes. If a church preaches clearly and strongly the Gospel of Jesus Christ by grace through faith, so the members should follow the example of the church public to then personally share the Gospel by grace through faith. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 that being an example is crucial as a leader (Timothy was pastor of church at Ephesus) as people will follow the lead of what they see in their churches (2 Timothy 2:2).
When a church brings the influence of the world into the church service the members will take that away with them and live it out in their daily lives. The members are looking to the church as their benchmark of behavior and lifestyle. Now mind you there are going to be members who will always live a supposed “higher” standard than their church, but for the most part people will always be a step or two away from the exact music standards they see in their church services. That is why the church’s music MUST be one which first and foremost follows biblical direction. You see there is no where in Scripture that we are told to sing an old song..you know the old song of the world, the old song of the flesh, the old song that we used to feed by worldly standards. We are commissioned to sing a NEW SONG! Psalm 40:3, Psalm 96:1, and Revelation 5:9 all speak of the “new song” put into our hearts and mouths by the Lord.
The music of our churches needs to be that new song not just new words!
Part 2 will be coming soon.
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